A company’s business culture is directly related to the number of individuals that have real input into the decision making process of the business. Some large companies run like start-ups, complete with all the chaos, energy and confusion that normally accompanies small venture funded and owner-operated businesses.
The opposite can be true of many small business cultures. Some exhibit great ability to organize their activities and deliver in a timely and efficient manner their products and services, even though their size and resources are small. Large or small, how a company is operated and the business culture it embodies is a direct result of the number of individuals who are responsible for making important business decisions.
A narrow base of decision makers, provides clarity, drives timely decision making and reduces the need to review and appeal to a wide base of stakeholders when critical choices need to be made. The downside to this type of decision making, is the increase of risk due to the absence of collective wisdom that a broader group of experienced managers brings to the table. Conversely, companies that are structured to make their decisions in consultation with a broad and diverse management team, tend to move slower, but with lower risk.
So the question is, why does this make a difference, and how does knowledge of this impact and benefit the working relationship of a consulting firm to its clients? The answer seems to lie in how well a service business can ‘read’ a customer’s business culture and then adapt its internal processes to align and benefit both parties.
When I visit a prospective customer, I always pay careful attention to understand ‘who’ and ‘how many’ individuals make the important decisions – in the case of the customers of StarFish Medical, decisions that affect a company’s medical device development priorities and product roadmap. Being in Business Development for a consulting firm, I need to understand more than, ‘what do they do’, I also need to know how they make decisions, and the reason ‘why they do what they do’.
I directly relate this to how I will approach a business and the method I will use to determine if there is a ‘fit’ between the two enterprises. The question that needs to be answered is, ‘can we adapt ourselves and our processes to successfully build a highly integrated partnership that will lead to innovation and excellence in medical device design?
Having this perspective is very important to a strategic medical device consulting firm like StarFish Medical. An appreciation and understanding for the intangible, but very real characteristics of business culture, allows us to align ourselves with a customer’s priorities and decision making process. This is more than a ‘nice to have’, rather it’s a requirement that allows the teams of both companies to ‘speak the same language’, enabling the clear and successful exchange of creative ideas and technical information – all of which, is fundamental to the success of a product development program.
The lesson in all of this, is that it’s important for both consulting firms and their customers to understand in advance each other’s business culture and the number and type of people that have real influence in the decision making process. Knowing this will go a long way to establishing a good working relationship, successful integration of business processes and ultimately a well designed product.
David Dobson is VP of Business Development at StarFish Medical. He brings consumer electronics and medical device experience and lots of passion to help potential clients understand what it takes to turn ideas into medical devices. See the results of some of his efforts in our Case Studies.